Humanities Lectures

Sir Tipene O’Regan is best known as a long serving chairman of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust board and as a key figure in the leadership of the Ngai Tahu claim to the Waitangi tribunal and he has been very influential in many other roles. Here he illuminates very important aspects of our places’ past, present, and its future and reflects on key cultural and historical issues of particular pertinence of all New Zealander’s including history, knowledge and tribal identity. 1 October 2015

Sir Tipene O’Regan is best known as a long serving chairman of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust board and as a key figure in the leadership of the Ngai Tahu claim to the Waitangi tribunal and he has been very influential in many other roles. Here he illuminates very important aspects of our places’ past, present, and its future and reflects on key cultural and historical issues of particular pertinence of all New Zealander’s including history, knowledge and tribal identity. 1 October 2015

Professor Richard Jackson talks to Dr Najibullah Lafraie, Department of Politics, who discusses a range of issues he is concerned about. Dr Lafraie discusses his family and growing up in Afghanistan, the effect of religion in his life and his early education through his study. After leaving Afghanistan for a short time, he returned to carry out his PhD study and continued on to join the resistance against the Soviet Union and continues with how he stayed in the country, in hiding, when the Taliban were present, to finally coming to live in New Zealand. 28 September 2015

Professor Richard Jackson talks to Dr Najibullah Lafraie, Department of Politics, who discusses a range of issues he is concerned about. Dr Lafraie discusses his family and growing up in Afghanistan, the effect of religion in his life and his early education through his study. After leaving Afghanistan for a short time, he returned to carry out his PhD study and continued on to join the resistance against the Soviet Union and continues with how he stayed in the country, in hiding, when the Taliban were present, to finally coming to live in New Zealand. 28 September 2015

Professor Richard Jackson talks to Dr Najibullah Lafraie, Department of Politics, who discusses a range of issues he is concerned about. Dr Lafraie discusses his family and growing up in Afghanistan, the effect of religion in his life and his early education through his study. After leaving Afghanistan for a short time, he returned to carry out his PhD study and continued on to join the resistance against the Soviet Union and continues with how he stayed in the country, in hiding, when the Taliban were present, to finally coming to live in New Zealand. 28 September 2015

In this talk Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics at Durham University. Tom discusses themes from his recently published book ‘Faith and Wisdom in Science’ (Oxford University Press, 2014). In this book, Tom takes a scientist’s reading of the Old Testament’s Book of Job and uses this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about the human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty, alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current “science and religion” debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. There are immediate consequences for how we treat science in government, the media, in education and in churches. 22 September 2015

In this talk Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics at Durham University. Tom discusses themes from his recently published book ‘Faith and Wisdom in Science’ (Oxford University Press, 2014). In this book, Tom takes a scientist’s reading of the Old Testament’s Book of Job and uses this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about the human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty, alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current “science and religion” debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. There are immediate consequences for how we treat science in government, the media, in education and in churches. 22 September 2015

In this talk Professor Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics at Durham University. Tom discusses themes from his recently published book ‘Faith and Wisdom in Science’ (Oxford University Press, 2014). In this book, Tom takes a scientist’s reading of the Old Testament’s Book of Job and uses this ancient text as a centrepiece to make the case for science as a deeply human and ancient activity, embedded in some of the oldest stories told about the human desire to understand the natural world. Drawing on stories from the modern science of chaos and uncertainty, alongside medieval, patristic, classical and Biblical sources, Faith and Wisdom in Science challenges much of the current “science and religion” debate as operating with the wrong assumptions and in the wrong space. There are immediate consequences for how we treat science in government, the media, in education and in churches. 22 September 2015

Professor David Tombs, Director, Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago, speaks about the US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (2014), which has strongly criticised the interrogation programme overseen by the CIA in the aftermath of 9/11. He connects this to studies of torture practices under authoritarian regimes in Latin America, and suggests that it is also relevant to the field punishment of Archibald Baxter, and other conscience objectors, in World War I. 21 September 2015

Professor David Tombs, Director, Centre for Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago, speaks about the US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on Torture (2014), which has strongly criticised the interrogation programme overseen by the CIA in the aftermath of 9/11. He connects this to studies of torture practices under authoritarian regimes in Latin America, and suggests that it is also relevant to the field punishment of Archibald Baxter, and other conscience objectors, in World War I. 21 September 2015